Page 765 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

said she wanted to do something splendid, no matter how
hard, and now she had her wish, for what could be more
beautiful than to devote her life to Father and Mother,
trying to make home as happy to them as they had to her?

And if difficulties were necessary to increase the splendor
of the effort, what could be harder for a restless, ambitious
girl than to give up her own hopes, plans, and desires, and
cheerfully live for others?
Providence had taken her at her word. Here was the
task, not what she had expected, but better because self
had no part in it. Now, could she do it? She decided that
she would try, and in her first attempt she found the helps
I have suggested. Still another was given her, and she took
it, not as a reward, but as a comfort, as Christian took the
refreshment afforded by the little arbor where he rested, as
he climbed the hill called Difficulty.
‘Why don’t you write? That always used to make you
happy,’ said her mother once, when the desponding fit
over-shadowed Jo.
‘I’ve no heart to write, and if I had, nobody cares for
my things.’
‘We do. Write something for us, and never mind the
rest of the world. Try it, dear. I’m sure it would do you
good, and please us very much.’

764 of 861